


The Hero in the Story

by Chash



Series: Together, They Fight Crime [1]
Category: Protector of the Small - Tamora Pierce, Provost's Dog - Tamora Pierce, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-10
Updated: 2014-07-10
Packaged: 2018-02-08 08:07:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1933320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chash/pseuds/Chash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's no rule saying girls can't be on the football team. Kel has looked.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hero in the Story

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, first off, this is a sequel series to [Miss Atomic Bomb](http://archiveofourown.org/series/118546). In the Tamora Pierce tradition, it takes place in the same universe, focusing on new characters with the old ones still showing up. So it's my hope that you don't have to read that first, but you may want to. We're picking up four years later!
> 
> You may also notice that I've got Beka Cooper in the tags! It's an AU and I get to do what I want, so I'm creating my own timeline to live my dream of Kel and Beka being justice BFFs. There are some other adjustments to family trees as well because of the timeline; I'm hoping they'll just make sense in the text. Also, Wyldon is Lord Wyldon's last name in this, because calling him Coach Cavall felt really weird. As I said above, I do what I want.
> 
> This series will span a longer period of time than the first one, and I'll probably post it more slowly, because that breakneck pace was kind of a lot. But I'm hoping to get through to Kel and Beka's college years. We'll see what happens! Or I will, all alone. Either way, good times.

"Come in."

Keladry Mindelan takes a deep breath, going over her rehearsed speech one more time in her head before she pushes the door open and goes into Coach Wyldon's office.

He looks up and is clearly surprised to see her in his door. He closes the playbook he's looking at and steeples his fingers on top of it. "Mindelan, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir," says Kel. She knows the coach by sight, of course, and he's subbed for a few of her PE classes, but they've never really interacted.

"How can I help you?"

 _I am stone_ , Kel thinks. _I am stone, and I have every right to be here_. "Football tryouts are next week."

"They are."

"I'd like to sign up."

Neal calls his coach the Stump, because Wyldon doesn't change, doesn't deal well with change, and is so proper and stiff that he makes Kel look emotional. She's not surprised that he keeps his reaction, whatever it may be, internal. "I'm afraid that's not possible."

Kel is careful to show no more of her feelings than he is. "May I ask why not?"

"The football team is for male students only. If you'd like to take up a sport, we have many available for girls. I'm sure any of them would be happy to have you. From what I've seen, you're an accomplished athlete."

"It's not, sir," says Kel.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I looked at the regulations, and I couldn't find anything that said only male students were allowed to join the football team."

Wyldon stares at her; Kel looks back.

"Queenscove put you up to this," he finally says. "You may tell him that his sense of humor is always appreciated, and I will show that appreciation with extra wind sprints come the fall."

"Neal didn't put me up to anything," Kel says slowly. "He did agree that I should try out. We've been practicing every day."

He gives her another long long. "I will have to check the regulations myself. If, as you say, there's nothing specifying the team as male-only, I'm sure it's simply an oversight. I will have it corrected as soon as possible. Thank you for bringing this to my attention."

"I'd still like to try out," Kel says firmly.

"I will keep that in mind, Mindelan."

"I'll also be mentioning it to he principal."

Wyldon raises his eyebrows. "Will you?"

"If I do have to petition for a change, I'd like to begin the process as soon as possible. If not for this season, then for the next one." She gives him a tight nod, not quite a bow. "Thank you for your time, sir."

Neal is waiting for her down the hall. "How'd it go?" he asks.

"Exactly as expected. He says it was an oversight that the guidelines didn't specify boys only and it will be corrected."

Neal puts his arm around her shoulders; Kel does not allow her stomach to flip over, because that would be pathetic. She's been very pointedly not having a crush on Neal for her whole freshman year of high school, ever since she moved back from Japan permanently and discovered her best friend had gotten tall and broad and attractive. She's planning to keep not having a crush on him for as long as possible. "Well, what's the plan now, then?"

"Is Roald around?"

"Somewhere."

"Beka told me to come meet her in town when I finished talking to Wyldon, he said he'd give me a ride. I think she's got an idea."

"Beka?" asks Neal, surprised. "Your roommate, Beka? Shy, mousy, still can't talk to me after a year Beka? What's she going to do?"

"She talks to you," Kel says, throwing a scowl at him.

"She says _hello_ and, if I'm lucky, when I ask how she is, she says, _fine_. We're getting very close."

"Some people learned to keep their mouth shut as children," she says. "We're all still hoping you'll figure it out eventually."

"You would _weep_ if I stopped gracing you with my pearls of wisdom," says Neal. "Come on, I think Roald is in the common room."

Roald Conte is a junior and one of Kel's closest friends on the football team. He's a shy, quiet boy, apparently because his older brother Jon and his sister Kalasin never let him get a word in edgewise. At least, according to Roald. He's also one of the only people Kel knows with a car and a willingness to give rides pretty much any time, which makes him a valuable asset.

"We'll just take the bus back," she tells him, once he drops her off. 

Roald looks a little concerned. "Are you sure this is okay?" he asks. "It looks kind of sketchy."

"It's fine," says Kel. She doesn't know Beka's whole story--Beka isn't exactly forthcoming, most of the time--but she grew up on what anyone would think of as the wrong side of the tracks. Kel is pretty sure part of why they became friends was that when Beka told Kel where she was from, Kel didn't recoil in disgust. "See, the Dancing Dove. It's right there. It looks fine."

"The Dancing Dove?" asks Roald, looking even more skeptical.

"What?"

"Nothing, just--my brother goes there."

"See? Nothing to worry about. Your brother goes there."

Roald snorts. "Obviously you've never met my brother."

Beka is waiting outside the bar, talking to a lanky blond-haired boy and a couple of girls, one in jeans and a hoodie and one in a light blue dress. They look like the kind of people Roald would warn her about; Kel's just as glad she talked him out of coming in with her.

She spots _Conte for President_ and _Conte for Town Council_ signs in the bar window, at least. He'd have to approve of that.

"Well, what do we have here?" the lanky blond says, leering at Kel. "Are you lost?"

Beka turns to see Kel and elbows him. "Leave her alone, Rosto. She's with me."

"Is she now?"

Beka ignores him, leaving the three of them and coming over to Kel instead. "Did you talk to Coach Wyldon?"

"Yeah. He's going to try to close this unfortunate loophole. The principal wasn't in, I'll have to try to get him on Monday."

Beka makes a face. "Well, come on. I don't know if Alanna can help, but I know her a lot better than I know Jonathan. And she can usually talk to him."

It's strange, seeing Beka in her element. Neal's not wrong to call her shy, and there's an ease to her here that Kel isn't used to seeing. This is where she comes from.

She pushes open the door to the Dancing Dove like she owns the place. A black cat mewls and jumps down from the bar to attack Beka's feet. Beka scoops him up. "Happy to see me, Pounce?"

"I keep tellin' you, you're goin' to confuse him, callin' him another name," says the bartender. He's a tall, solidly built man in his late twenties or early thirties, not at all the type Kel would expect to know Beka. She didn't think Beka did much hanging out in bars at all.

"I'll stop calling him Pounce when he stops jumping on my feet," Beka shoots back, just as easy with this man as she'd seemed with the three outside.

"And who'd you bring me?"

"She's a friend from school, so don't hit on her or I'll tell your girlfriend. You know how she feels about you flirting with high-schoolers."

The man's lip twitches. "Fiancee," he corrects, obviously trying to sound casual, but not quite getting there.

Beka's eyebrows shoot up. She heads over toward the counter to shake the man's hand. "Congratulations! When did that happen?"

"If you ask Jon, much later than it should have. She's only been going by Alanna Cooper for years. But a few days ago. I would've told you, but we've been--" he flashes her a suggestive grin. "Busy. Now, come on and introduce me to your friend. What are you doin' bringin' her here anyway? Aren't I a bad influence?"

"The worst. Kel, this is my cousin, George. George, this is Keladry Mindelan. We're actually looking for your _fiancee_ , if she's around."

"She is, she's upstairs. Go up and fetch her, I want to hear what you're talkin' about."

"What if it's private?"

"C'mon now, we're family. What could you be keepin' private from me?" Beka gives him a firm shove as she heads upstairs; he turns to Kel with an appraising look in his eye. Kel looks back, stoic, until he cracks a smile. "So, you want somethin' to drink? Nothin' hard, mind, but soda's on the house if you'd like."

"Just water, thank you."

George fills up a glass and slides it to Kel. The cat jumps up onto the stool next to her to sniff her, and Kel lets him and then gives him a pat. "What's his name if it isn't Pounce?"

"Faithful," says George. "But he answers to anythin', up to and includin' _damnit, cat_ so long as you feed him." He considers her again. "So, you're a friend of Beka's."

"Yes."

"That's good. She could use more friends."

Before Kel can agree, Beka comes back with a short, stocky woman with messy red hair. She's wearing a baggy t-shirt and cargo shorts and looks like every jock football player she's ever seen hanging out in Neal's room on a Friday night. "Kel, this is Alanna. Alanna, Kel."

Alanna offers her hand, looking at Kel thoughtfully, and snaps her fingers before Kel can actually shake. "You're in Buri's class. At the Shang Dojo?"

"Yes," says Kel, surprised. Now that she's got the context, Alanna does look a little familiar.

"She thinks you've got a lot of potential," says Alanna, going behind the bar and getting water for herself and Beka. "So, what brings you two here?"

"Is Jonathan still working for his uncle's firm?" asks Beka. "They're the legal advisers for the academy, right?"

"Yeah."

"I think they might have a case coming up," she says, glancing back at Kel. "And I thought you could maybe give Kel better advice than I could. You have experience with this kind of thing."

Alanna frowns. "A case? What case?"

"I want to play football," Kel says, a little shyly. She's not reserved, not like Beka, but two unfamiliar adults giving her all this attention is strange. "There wasn't a rule saying I couldn't, but--the coach said it was an oversight."

"I remember that oversight," says Alanna. She grins. "I was all ready to try out for the football team when I was a freshman."

"What happened?" asks Kel. "Why didn't you?"

"I practiced with Jon for, like, forty-five minutes? And I decided football _sucked_ and I never wanted to play it again."

George ruffles her hair. "That's my girl."

"It's not actually that uncommon these days," Alanna continues, thoughtful. "Plenty of schools allow girls. This isn't the kind of thing they want to double-down on. It'd just get them bad press." She flashes a grin. "I keep up with this kind of news."

"If it made the news," says Kel. "I don't want to make a fuss. I just want to play football. I'm good! Neal--he's my best friend, he plays quarterback--he says I'm better than a lot of the boys. And I miss being on a team. I tried soccer, but it's boring. And all my friends are on the football team. Except Beka."

George snorts. "Never thought I'd see you hangin' out with a jock," he teases.

"Shut _up_ ," says Beka. Kel has a theory that the more Beka snaps at you, the more she likes you. She and George must be very close. "I thought it might help if you talked to Jon? In case they're going to go to their legal team."

"It couldn't hurt," says Alanna. She glances at Kel. "You're sure you don't want to make a fuss?"

Kel shrugs. She's never liked obviously sticking out; she always did in Japan, tall and obviously foreign, inescapably other. It wasn't bad, most of the time, no cruelty, but it was an awareness, a prickling under her skin. She was too big and too different, and she spent a long time trying to make herself smaller. It's nice to blend in again.

"So you'll just give up if he says no?" George asks.

"He's the coach. If he doesn't want me on the team, he doesn't want me on the team. They can make him let me join, and he'll just have me warm the bench all season. I don't want that. All I want is the same chance the boys have."

"What about your parents?" asks George, with a glance back at Alanna that Kel can't read. "What do they think?"

Kel blushes. "They're in Japan. They live there most of the year. My dad's the ambassador. I've emailed them and they're supportive, but they'd have trouble doing anything. My brothers are here and don't live too far away, and they were both on the football team, but I don't know if that matters much."

"Well, I'll see what I can do," says Alanna. "I'm not exactly their favorite alum, but I'm always willing to crack some skulls."

It's no guarantee of success, but she looks so enthusiastic that Kel can't help grinning back at her.

*

"I'm just going to go," Kel tells Neal.

"Go where?"

"The tryouts. I'm going to go, and I'm going to try out. And I'm going to be the best."

Neal grins and bumps his fist against hers. "Hell yeah you are."

They practice aggressively. There's another week before summer starts (Neal feels that having tryouts for next season before the school year even ends is another sign of Wyldon's over-investment in his team; Kel thinks it makes sense to get his upper classmen assembled before he tries out freshmen in the summer), and whenever they aren't in class, Kel and Neal are on the field, practicing plays with whichever of Neal's teammates they can wrangle.

If Coach Wyldon notices, he isn't saying anything. Kel hasn't heard anything official at all, in fact. No one's told her she can't try out, except for a couple of the assholes from the team, who have never liked Kel. She's not even sure they know she's actually planning to try out for the team; it might just be general douchebaggery.

"Well, screw them," says Merric. He's a freshman, like Kel, but he knew about the summer tryouts and was on the JV team this year. Still, Kel is taller than him and has a better arm, and Merric knows it. He's even mostly stopped being bitter about it. "They're assholes anyway."

"Just to get you excited about your future teammates," Neal puts in dryly.

"If I actually get to be on the team, I won't care what my teammates are like. Well, not as long as I've got you guys."

"Aww," says Neal, putting her in a headlock that, as usual, does not make her stomach flip. Her stomach is not allowed to flip. Especially over a _headlock_. That's just pathetic. "You like us! You really like us!"

"Lord knows why," Merric mutters.

That, at least, gets Neal's attention off Kel and onto Merric, and the two of them start scuffling instead.

"Do you know if your brother's involved in this at all?" Kel asks Roald, who is sensibly not involved, as usual.

He shrugs. "No. I haven't talked to him. He's just an associate, anyway. And between his job, his boyfriend, his campaign for town council, he's pretty busy. Raoul says he hasn't even been drinking much. And he barely even snapchats. We're all very concerned."

Kel looks at him. "I can never tell if you're joking about him or not."

Roald gives her a wry smile. "I wish."

*

"Any news from Alanna?" she asks Beka in their room that night. She tries to sound casual, but Beka gives her a sharp look, so she probably went too far. She's just--well, she's honestly a little curious about Alanna. Kel's never been the best at being feminine, never quite known how she fits in, and she felt a tug of familiarity from Alanna. She doesn't know much about the woman, but she seemed happy and settled, and she's apparently engaged, which makes Kel feel a little hopeful she might someday sort out her own life to her satisfaction. Hopefully she can find someone a little handsomer who will marry her, but maybe George is funny or something.

"I haven't asked," Beka says. "I assume she'll get in touch if she hears anything. We don't talk that often."

"But you and your cousin seem close."

Beka shrugs, shifting a little. "We always got on okay. And after Mama died, his ma, my aunt Eleni, was the one who took me and my little brothers and sisters in. She's got a rich husband, so she was already helping to take care of us. The two of them are close, so he'd visit a lot. She lives a few blocks from the Dove."

It's the most information Kel's ever gotten about Beka's family; she knew Beka's parents were dead and someone was financing her education, but even that she'd mostly put together from clues. "Well, I'm glad they could be there for you."

Beka smiles into her book. "I'm very grateful, yes."

*

Coach Wyldon makes all of his team try out every year, because, according to Neal, he is the worst and everything is terrible. Kel's constantly amazed Neal keeps playing football, but every time she asks about it, he just mutters about a proud Queenscove tradition of broken bones and concussions, and she lets it go.

She lines up between him and Merric at the tryout; Joren, one of the other juniors, sees her and jeers, "What are you doing here, Lump?"

"What's it look like?" Neal shoots back. "It's tryouts. What do you think she's doing?"

"Does she follow you into the bathroom too?"

"Quiet," says Coach Wyldon, striding onto the field. He spots Kel almost immediately. "Mindelan, what are you doing?"

Neal, thankfully, does not give Wyldon the same pert reply he gave Joren. "No one told me about a change in policy, sir," she says, looking straight ahead. "So I'm here to try out."

"I suppose I am unable to stop you," he says after a long moment. "But trying out does not guarantee you a place on my team."

"Of course not," says Kel.

He turns away from her and gets started, barking out drills and criticisms as the team and the hopefuls begin to play. Joren and his cronies do their best to take Kel down, and while they occasionally succeed, she knows she more than holds her own. She even gets a few good tackles of her own in. By the time Wyldon tells them to stop, she's grass-stained, sweaty, and grinning like her face might split.

"You all performed well. The team roster will be up early next week," he tells them, once they're all gathered around him. "You are dismissed." Neal ruffles her hair and Kel ducks out of his way, swatting at him. If she just grows another couple inches, she'll be taller than him. Not that she thinks this will stop him doing things like that, but she'd feel better. "Mindelan!" Wyldon calls, before she can get too far.

She jogs back to the coach. "Yes, sir?"

His mouth twitches. "I had hoped you would not come."

"I want to play," says Kel.

"The principal and I will discuss your eligibility for the team," he says. 

_Can't you just tell him I'm not good enough?_ she wonders, but does not say. "I see."

"It is my hope that he will agree it's neither safe nor proper for us to have girls on the team. If he does, I assume he will inform you. If he does not speak with you, you may check the team roster for your name, as the boys will."

There's not much to say to that, so Kel just bows her head. "Thank you, sir."

"How'd it go?" Neal asks. "You bowed to him, by the way."

"Not _much_ ," she protests. She's trying to break the habit, but it's reflexive. Especially with authority figures. "Anyway, he says if I'm not allowed on the team, the principal will tell me. And otherwise I'll just find out with the rest of you. He could just say I'm not good enough," she adds. "And then it wouldn't be a problem."

"He could," Neal says. "But no one who saw you try out would believe it."

*

On Wednesday, she gets called in to the principal's office.

"We're going to go with a probation," says Principal Naxon.

"Sir?" asks Kel, confused.

"Coach Wyldon has agreed to put you on the team on a trial basis. He is not convinced you'll be able to keep up with the boys. If you have performed to his satisfaction by the first game of the season, you will be a permanent member of the team."

"To his satisfaction?" Kel asks, glancing at the coach.

"I am the coach," says Wyldon mildly. "My satisfaction is what matters."

"If these terms aren't acceptable, you don't have to join," the principal adds, and Kel bristles. She doesn't _like_ it; she's supposed to have proved herself during tryouts and it's not fair that she's going to have to keep proving herself.

But there's no way she's giving up this easily.

"No," she says. She even manages a smile. "I'm looking forward to it."


End file.
